An apology for abolitionists / addressed by the anti-slavery society of Meriden, Conn., to their fellow citizens

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
SECOND EDITION.

Fellow-Citizens :
A regard for your good opinion, and a wish to promote the cause, which, as Abolitionists, lies near our hearts, is our motive for addressing you. We think the opposition to our enterprise arises either from commercial, political or domestic connections with Slavery, or from misapprehensions respecting our principles, measures and prospects. We desire no better means of overcoming these obstacles than a fair statement of facts; and to this we now solicit your attention.
We believe that all men are born free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe Slavery is an infraction of these rights, a violation of the principles of christianity, and under all circumstances sinful.
We believe that Slavery is a great national evil, political as well as moral, opposed to the genius of a republican government, highly dangerous to the peace and permanency of the Union, and if persisted in, destined to bring upon us the severest judgments of Heaven.
We believe the immediate abolition of slavery would be safe and wise, and that it is the duty of every friend of humanity to use all fair and just means for its accomplishment.
We believe we have a right to express and publish our opinions respecting the customs and institutions of the people of this and every other country; and if we think them in any degree immoral, unequal, or oppressive, we are under the highest obligations, in the exercise of all honest and lawful means, to change them.
We believe that Slavery in the several states can be lawfully abolished only by the legislatures of the states in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other than moral means to induce such abolition, is unconstitutional.
We believe that Congress has a right to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories, and to prohibit the slave trade between the states, and that the exercise of this right is required by the divine law, and by the interests of our country.